A movie about a 14-year-old's obsession with poisons and how he administers his favourite chemical to kill may in itself not be unusual. But what if the story is true? Directed by Benjamin Ross, The Young Poisoner's Handbook is based on the life of Graham Young, an English schoolboy convicted of murdering his stepmother in the early 1960s.
The film recounts how Graham led a life haunted by his persistent fascination for finding the ultimate poison that was tasteless, colourless, odourless and untraceable.
This compulsion meant that anyone who crossed his path was liable to end up as his guinea pig. The sight of sandwiches, chocolates and tea has never been so unappetising.
'The most bizarre thing [about the film] is that it is true, or at least many of the bizarre incidents in the film are true,' the British director says. 'This young boy grew up and became interested in poison and then poisoning his family. He was eventually caught and sent to a [mental] hospital but was released 10 years later.' Having proved to his psychologist, Dr Zeigler, that he was 'cured', the Home Office found work for the young man in a photographic laboratory where, ironically, the young killer was once again exposed to his favourite poison - thallium.
'That was the most extreme incident,' Ross says.
'So the whole [production] really is to take those facts and use them as a point of departure. It's a satire on the British state of mind . . . and that's what the film is about.' He adds that while making the film, he was looking for a way into the truth, and something true to the emotion of a psychotic experience.